Dream run for Locmelis, Latvia

Dans Locmelis returned to Latvia a hero.

The 2022 Bruins fourth-round pick was part of a World Junior Championship team that produced the country’s best-ever finish. Promoted to the main group in Edmonton when Russia and Belarus were expelled, Latvia won its first-ever preliminary-round game, an upset of Czechia, and made its first trip to the quarterfinals.

Latvia lost, 2-1, to Fabian Lysell and Sweden in the quarters. Locmelis, who had a slick assist on the tying goal and was on the ice for key draws, was selected as Latvia’s player of the game.

“It means a lot. It shows that we’re going the right way with our young players. It inspires the young kids and shows them we can play against the best,” Locmelis said from home in Jelgava, Latvia, about a 45-minute drive southwest of capital city Riga.

Locmelis, who put up a goal and an assist in five WJC games, was Latvia’s No. 2 center. The left-shot forward (6 feet, 170 pounds) was drafted 119th overall by the Bruins after going 1816–34 in 44 games for the Lulea HF juniors in Sweden.

He started skating at 2 and played at 4, looking up to his father, an amateur player. Before long, Locmelis said, he was “dominating.”

“Latvia’s not that big,” he said. “It’s only like 2 million people in our country.”

In 2019, on counsel of his advisers, a 15-year-old Locmelis (pronounced Lotch-mellis; his teammates call him Danny) took a flight to northeast Sweden to join Lulea HF. After working his way up the club’s junior ranks, he made two appearances with the men’s team last season. He will return there this season, eschewing an option to play for Youngstown in the USHL.

“The rink is beautiful and there’s always free ice,” he said of Lulea. “You can really develop your skills.”